ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a series of key points related to process and system variability. One of the keys to optimizing the performance of publishers' processes understanding the nature and sources of variability. Wallace J. Hopp and Mark L. Spearman go on to discuss how variability pooling affects batch processing, safety stock aggregation and queue sharing, but the important point to take away is this. Pooling variability tends to reduce the overall variability, just like a diversified portfolio reduces the risk of up and down swings in publishers' earnings. The chapter explains the effect of processing time variability on the performance of production lines. The inevitable conclusion is that variability degrades the performance of a manufacturing organization. Hopp and Spearman point out that another, and more subtle, way to deal with congestion effects is by combining multiple sources of variability, known as variability pooling.
